Odey Ochicha
From: Diana Okon-Effiong, Calabar
Mr Odey Ochicha, the APC governorship aspirant in the 2015 polls says he can lead Cross River from heavy indebtedness and dependence on Federal allocations to an economically viable State.Ochicha, a former management staff of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and defunct NITEL, stated this in in an interview with newsmen in Calabar.
He said that if elected as governor of Cross River in the forthcoming polls he has the capacity to transform the state’s economic fortunes through agriculture.
He said that the debt burden of Cross River in the current dispensation would, however, not deter his administration from partnering with others to get it in the league of most developed states in Nigeria.
Ochicha said Nigeria required visionary leaders and philosophers, adding that his leadership style would be spiced with what he termed character, charisma, competence, credibility, courage, commitment and service.
“Our dear state is the third most indebted in the federation after Bayelsa and Lagos. It is already experiencing considerable difficulties in paying workers monthly salaries.That is why one of our four cardinal programme for the rescue of Cross River is economy. Rather than wait for allocations from the federal government, if voted into office, we shall urgently mobilise our people to focus on agriculture with emphasis on plantation agriculture.
” We shall create an enabling environment for the extensive cultivation, processing and aggressive marketing of four cash crops namely cocoa, oil palm, cassava and rice.This, we shall do, not only to earn revenue for the state but also to create jobs for hundreds of thousands of our citizens.We have the big dream to be the first state to in the federation to open to open up a 10-lane road traversing our state.
`”We shall do so in the knowledge that roads bring development to a place and people,’’ Ochicha said.
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